


Bleed the Sky

by saezutte



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Earth, Family, M/M, Massage, Waiting, casual touching, coming home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-04-21 09:14:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14281719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saezutte/pseuds/saezutte
Summary: With Earth now under threat by Galra invasion, the paladins return to Earth for recuperation and preparation. Keith, with nowhere to go, visits Lance's family and finds himself enjoying Lance as much as he enjoys the beach.





	Bleed the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> I am extremely late; I wanted this to be good and got too ambitious, I think, and overstressed. Anyway, thank you to paige for her delightful prompt and lovely art and for chatting with me through it.
> 
> I have never been to Cuba, so the descriptions of Varadero are based on Google Maps. Title is from R.E.M.'s Fall on Me.

The view from the castle ship was one they’d seen a thousand times by now: a new destination, a planet dangling in the darkness of space like a jewel on a necklace of stars. But this time, it wasn’t entirely new. 

“This wasn’t how I expected to be seeing Earth again,” Lance said. He tilted his head at it. “It’s pretty though.” 

“I wasn’t expecting to see Earth again,” Keith said. He hadn’t been planning on it, in fact. 

“‘Pretty’ isn’t the word I’d use.” Hunk leaned towards the view screen as though he could touch Earth. 

“More like amazing,” Pidge added. 

“It’s quite a lovely planet,” Allura said. “You should feel proud.” 

“We are,” Shiro said. Despite the situation, he looked almost relaxed, like the sight of Earth had peeled off the years the war with the Galra had added to his face. 

Keith didn’t mean to bring down the mood, but it had to be said. “I’ll feel proud when it’s safe from Haggar.” 

“Wow, okay, way to bring us back down to Earth there,” Lance groaned, then grinned. “Get it? Back down to Earth?” He elbowed Keith in the ribs. “Because we’re going back down to Earth!” 

“We get it, we get it,” Hunk said, but he couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice. 

“We’ve been a billion light-years away from Earth and your jokes haven’t improved at all,” Pidge said. “It’s kind of amazing.” 

“Need to deliver the same name-brand Lance comedy to my fans down on Earth,” Lance said. “I don’t want to be accused of selling out just because I’m a super famous space hero now.” 

Keith snorted. “Yeah, can’t disappoint your many fans on Earth.” 

“I know that’s sarcasm, Keith, but I am choosing to ignore it because of this joyous occasion.” 

“The joyous occasion of a well-armed space witch threatening our home planet with total destruction?” Hunk said. 

“Well, yeah, that, but I meant that we get to go back! To Earth! Our family! Our friends! Cheese fries!” 

“Cheese fries, indeed. Pizza. Mozzarella sticks. Poké. Romantic comedies.” Hunk seemed to get lost in his thoughts at that point. 

“New video games! We can stock up while we’re down there.” Pidge was practically salivating. 

Keith stepped back from the group. It wasn’t that he wasn’t excited to see Earth, but they were there for a reason. A mission. To defend it, just like they had so many other planets from the Galran Empire. It deserved their full attention. 

And Earth, to him now—he remembered growing up there as a fog, when things were hard and dull, when he’d never felt at home anywhere. Now he knew it was because a part of him had always been outside of Earth’s thin atmosphere, but he suspected it was deeper than a genetic divergence. He just didn’t belong there. But he would still protect it with his life. 

“You’ll all have some down time while we coordinate with Earth’s defense forces,” Shiro said, “so enjoy all the cheese fries you can.” 

“Seriously, though, I can’t wait to see my family.” Hunk sighed. 

“Yeah, Matt and I are going home to see Mom and Dad until we get the all clear.” 

Keith shifted awkwardly. “Shiro, I think I’d be of more use coming with you than eating cheese fries.” He tried to say it quietly but there wasn’t any way not to be overheard. 

Shiro paused, considering. “I know there isn’t any family here on Earth for you, but there must be somewhere you want to visit.” 

“What’s the point of that? If I can help by coming with you—“

They’d had this conversation before, when it was decided they’d be coming back to Earth. Shiro said, as kindly as he could, “We agreed that you can help by taking a week or so to relax and get rested.” 

“There’s nowhere for me to go.” Keith tried to sound assertive, but it came out more pathetic. He wanted to take it back, but everyone was already staring at him. 

“You can stay with my family,” Lance said, nonchalantly. 

Keith blinked. 

“There are like a bazillion people there anyway, no one will notice one more.” 

“Thanks, but I—“ He stopped as Lance threw an arm around his shoulders. 

“It’ll be fun. There’s a beach!” Lance waved his hands as though that was a universal sign for beach. Maybe it was, for all Keith knew. 

“I’ve seen beaches before—” Keith started to say as Lance pulled him closer and he lost the thread of the anti-beach argument he was going to make. 

Shiro smiled. “That’s a great idea, Lance. Thank you. Keith, this is good time for you to reconnect with Earth.” 

“But Shiro—“

“It’s good to cherish your planet while you have it,” Allura said and, well, there was really no arguing with that from someone who had lost hers, was there? “Please relax and enjoy the beach.” 

Keith sighed but nodded. He leaned just a little in to Lance’s arm around his shoulder, but in a second it was gone: Lance was gesticulating at Hunk and Pidge instead. 

“You should all come and visit! After you’ve gotten sick of your families and video games.” 

Pidge hesitated. “I don’t know, my parents will probably want to spend some more time with us.” She winced. “Sorry, Keith.” 

“Why are you sorry?” he said. “I’ve spent quality time with Krolia on missions.” 

“Dude, that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.” Hunk shook his head. “We can head to Lance’s once the defense plan is in place, just before we take off. That way we can get some beach time—at an inferior beach, compared to my house, duh, but if Lance insists—and get ready for what… ever ends up being the plan.” 

“Great,” Shiro nodded. “Once the defense plan is settled, we’ll regroup at Lance’s.” 

As they filed out of the command center, there still hung on the view screen: Earth, a blue marble, partially in shadow. Keith looked over his shoulder at it as he left; it was just like how he remembered it and yet nothing about it seemed familiar.  
—————

They parked the lions on that famous beach just as the sun was setting. Keith glanced out at the water as he climbed down. Luckily, Lance’s family home was somewhat secluded, tucked away from the main resort strip of Varadero on the other side of the bay. They couldn’t hide the lions, but at least maybe they’d pass for some bizarre local theater project. 

“Earth! My beloved!” Lance fell to his knees when he dropped from lion, kissing the sand beneath him. “Ugh, ew, sand in my mouth, still no good.”

“Were you expecting sand to taste good now?” Keith was still looking out over the water. He could see the lights and buildings of the peninsula; it was late in the season, but there must have been tourists still—benign, harmless Earth tourists trying to enjoy a tropical paradise. He looked up. In the twilight, a few stars were starting to come out around a thin sliver of a crescent moon. He tried to remember the positions of the stars this time of the year from first year astronomy, but they weren’t coming back to him. He felt a cool breeze on the back of his neck and shivered. 

“Better to eat dirt at home than anywhere else in the galaxy, right?” Lance brushed himself off. “I’m sure I’ve heard that saying somewhere.” 

“Your own confused brain?—hey!” Keith sputtered—Lance was sprinkling a handful of sand over his head and, partly, into his open mouth. He shook his head and more sand fell from it. “You’re going to regret that.” 

Lance just laughed and took off down the beach. “You’ll have to catch me first.” 

He ran after him, of course, all the way up a winding path through the dunes. When he caught up, Lance was stopped at a doorway. He readied his own handful of sand to drop down the back of Lance’s neck, but then Lance opened the door. 

It was pandemonium. 

“Lance?!” a woman shouted. 

“Lance!” an elderly woman gasped. 

“Lance! Lance!” a small child and a slightly larger one began to scream-chant.

“Is it really you?” said a man, slightly older and wider, but otherwise the spitting image of Lance.

“Of course it is, Marco, don’t be an idiot,” hissed a woman with a baby on her lap. 

Keith let the sand slip through his fingers. Lance turned to him and smiled—not a cocky grin or a nervous smirk, but a smile. “Told you I had fans.” He winked and then, taking Keith by the wrist, he stepped across the threshold. 

“Family, I am home,” he announced. 

They all cheered and mobbed him in a group hug beyond anything Keith (who was barely used to the paladins’ group hugs) had ever witnessed. When Lance could get a breath in, he yelled, “Family! This is Keith, my guest! A friend! Or something! Love him as you love me!” 

Keith didn’t even have time to role his eyes at that. In a second, they all turned to him in unison and fell upon him, backslapping, handshaking, even possibly cheek-kissing. Keith was quickly introduced to Lance’s mother Lilliana (a doctor), his grandmother Lourdes (a retired pilot), his older brother Marco (a “no-good layabout” according to—), his sister-in-law Caridad (now with baby Leo), and his two younger siblings, Veronica (12) and Luis (8). Keith didn’t know if he introduced himself or not, by the end of the hurricane; it seemed like “Lance’s guest, friend, Keith” was all this pack of Lances needed to know he was welcome. 

Lance, meanwhile, had immediately grabbed the baby. “I’m an uncle. Keith,” he dangled the baby in front of Keith. It kicked its little onesie’d feet. “Look, I went to space and came back an uncle.” He spun the baby around his head; it gurgled. Keith hoped it wouldn’t throw up. 

“Lance, be careful with your nephew,” Lilliana said. 

“Mom, he’s laughing! He likes it.” He pressed the baby to face. “He likes me! He smells so good.” 

Lourdes, despite being half Lance’s height, reached up and took the baby from him. “We all like things that aren’t good for us,” she said firmly. 

“Aww, Grandma, that was mean. I’ve been back for a minute and you’re already mean to me?”

Marco guffawed. “Welcome back, kiddo. Just glad you’re here to take the heat off me.” 

“Plenty of heat to go around,” Cari muttered, but she was smiling. “Lance, it’s good to have you back. They told us you were M.I.A. at first—“ 

“—We thought you were dead. Were you dead?” Luis asked quietly. 

“Do I look dead, buddy?” Lance leaned down to hug his brother. 

“We knew he wasn’t dead after last year, remember,” Veronica said. “Because of that Holt guy!” 

“ _Commander_ Holt, Veronica,” Lilliana corrected. “It was good to hear you were alive, even if they couldn’t tell us what you were doing.” 

Lance shifted. “Ah. We still can’t tell you much.” 

“Anything,” Keith said sharply. It had been decided that the Voltron mission and the Galra threat were classified. 

Lilliana looked between the two of them. “That’s fine. We’re used to military secrets here.” She seemed to be insisting it particularly to Keith. He didn’t know if she’d taken him for the superior officer (less true than ever after he’d gone to the Blade and returned) or if she just wanted him to trust that they wouldn’t be bothered about their mission. “We won’t pry.” 

“Certainly, certainly,” added Lourdes, depositing the baby in the high-chair. “We’re very proud of you, Lance, whatever trouble you’ve gotten yourself into. But you were just in time for dinner, and, now, we are all late for dinner. Sit, sit.” She pushed Keith into a chair rather forcefully. 

Dinner was piles of delicious food—they had known Lance was coming, after all—but Keith could barely taste it. The tips of his fingers were numb. The conversation around him, a jovial patter of laughter and unknown names and inside jokes, went over his head like background noise. This wasn’t a place he knew or recognized. Across the table, Lance caught his eye and smiled. 

“You okay, Keith?” he asked. 

Keith swallowed. He nodded. He couldn’t speak; the words wouldn’t come. Maybe he was more tired by the flight to Earth than he’d thought. 

Marco pounded him on back, hard. “He’s good. We’re overwhelming. Remember when I first brought my Cari home for dinner—“ 

Lance choked on his corn cob. “That’s really—that’s really not the same, bro.” Keith stared at him as he grew a fascinating shade of pink. 

“Why not?” Marco seemed innocently confused. “As I was saying, when I brought the beautiful Caridad here home to meet Mom—“ 

The beauty in question was giggling, but Lance was so red Keith worried his head was going to burst. “I’m fine,” Keith managed to say, hoping to save Lance further embarrassment. “Just tired.” 

“You get used to them, Keith,” Cari added sympathetically. “Just wait until you’ve been married three years!” She and Marco burst out in laughter. 

Lance sputtered. “Mom, make them stop! They’re embarrassing Keith.” 

“You’re the one who’s blushing,” Keith pointed out. 

“Am not! Mom!” 

Lilliana raised an eyebrow at him and turned to Marco with a dramatic sigh. “Oh, most adult of my children, please stop embarrassing Lance and his, what did you call him? Your ‘guest-friend-or-something’?” 

Lance threw his hands up and addressed the sky. “My own mother has forsaken me, so long separated from the warmth of her loving arms—” 

“He hasn’t gotten even a little bit less dramatic, has he,” Lilliana said, looking right at Keith. 

Keith had to smile. “Not even a little bit, ma’am.” 

She laughed. “Please, Keith, call me ‘mom.’” 

“Mom,” Lance screeched. 

After that, Keith seemed to find the rhythm of the conversation, enough to follow, if not to join in. 

 

————  
When dinner was over, Lance showed him to his room, which turned out to be Lance’s own childhood bedroom. 

“You can take the bed,” he said. 

“I don’t want to put you out,” Keith started to say.

“Pfft, no, don’t be silly, I’m the host. There’s an air mattress, I’ll sleep on the floor.” 

It was so late he didn’t try to object. He laid back on the bed. He’d meant to change into sleep clothes, but his eyes were already drifting shut. He noticed on the ceiling a pattern of those glow-in-the-dark stick-on stars, bright green and yellow, glowing just a little in the dim light of the lamp. 

“I’m going down to help Mom clean up,” Lance said, standing above the bed. “Is there anything you need?” 

Keith thought there were a lot of things he needed, but he shook his head. “One question, though.” He thought about asking what it was like to travel the galaxy, to fight, and maybe to die in the cold of space, when he has all this warmth behind him. Instead he asked, “Your brother is pretty buff, so where’s your muscle mass?” 

Lance gasped. “How dare you!” He grabbed the pillow behind Keith’s head. “Just for that,” and whacked Keith with it right in the face. Keith grabbed the pillow as Lance pulled back. There was a brief scuffle for the pillow. Lance was soon breathless and half pulled into bed with Keith. He froze as Lance’s leg grazed his thigh. 

“You’re lucky your crazy family tired me out,” Keith mumbled as he let the pillow go. 

“Whatever, you love them,” Lance said, climbing off the bed and putting the pillow back behind Keith’s head. 

“Only because they tease you,” he said. 

“Yeah, I’m a saint for putting up with them and you,” Lance said from the doorway. “Goodnight, Keith.” 

“Goodnight, Lance,” he whispered as Lance turned off the light and shut the door. The light from the plastic constellations on the ceiling was suddenly the brightest part of the room. Looking at them, Keith could almost imagine he was back in the castle, with its cool bluish alien light. As a child on Earth, a part of him had always longed for alien stars, but no one had ever decorated his ceiling with stars like these. 

—————

“Wake up, sleepy Keith! Wake up!” 

Keith thought they were under attack, at first, but a palm tree outside the window and the softness of the mattress beneath him reminded him where he was. Plus, there was a small child jumping on his bed. Not a usual plan of alien attack. 

“Luis, what the quiznak?” Lance rubbed sleep out of his eyes as he sat up from the air mattress on the floor. He was wearing fully matching blue linen pajamas and his hair was mussed by the sleep mask he’d pulled up from his eyes. Keith had seen Lance barely awake plenty of times, but this was the first time he thought he looked almost cute. Cute like a little kid, of course, he thought, not unlike the kid who had paused his jumping to stare him. 

“What’s quiznak?” Luis asked. “Is that a bad word?” 

Lance considered. “I don’t know, actually. Maybe? I guess not.” 

Luis nodded and then he ran to the door and towards the stairs. “Grandma! Lance said a bad word!” 

“Oh, quiznak. I mean—“ Lance laid down again. “Ugh, it’s not worth it. Whatever! I’m nineteen! I can say all the made-up space swear words I want!” 

“Is it weird I kind of miss Coran?” Keith said. 

“Yes, Keith, that’s obviously weird.” 

“But he could pop up now and explain what quiznak actually means to your grandma.“

Lance scrunched up his face. “I don’t think I want to know what quiznak means. It’s just fun to say.” 

“That probably means it’s dirty.” All the worst words were the most fun to say. 

Luis came running back into the room. “She says you have to do chores, all day, forever, until the house and your mouth are sparkling clean.” 

Lance sighed. “Yeah, sure, let me get dressed.” He climbed off the air mattress. 

“I’ll help,” Keith said. “With cleaning,” he added when Lance gave him a look. “Not with you getting dressed. I’ll get dressed too. On my own.” 

Both Luis and Lance were staring, identical dark blue eyes, confirming Keith was a weirdo. “You don’t have to clean, man,” Lance said. “You’re a guest.” 

Keith shrugged. “What else am I doing?” 

“What do you ever do? Run around? Punch things? Stab things? You can do whatever your hobbies are, not polish my grandma’s plates.” 

“Polishing is probably a good arm workout.” He wanted to do something to earn his keep while he was here, since he was taking up food and a bed. He knew they didn’t see it that way, but that was the only frame he had to understand a household: you earned your keep. 

“Suit yourself,” Lance said and dragged himself and his slippered feet off to the bathroom. 

After a quick breakfast of cereal—Keith hadn’t realized how much he missed cornflakes, of all things—they found Lance’s grandmother in the living room, humming as she sprayed Windex on the windowpanes. Cleaning the house turned out to be less a punishment than a bonding activity: Lance’s grandmother was helping too. Keith was grateful to have a task. Somehow, after yesterday, he wasn’t sure how to be alone with Lance in this house full of people who so clearly loved him. 

“Keith, you can vacuum?” Lourdes gestured to him with an ancient machine on wheels with attachments stretching out of it like tentacles. “Can you start with the front hallway?” 

Keith nodded and took what he thought was the head of the vacuuming beast. 

“Of course he can vacuum, Grandma, he was the best pilot in our class,” Lance added. 

“I thought you were the best pilot in your class,” Lourdes asked innocently. 

“After me, of course.” 

Keith snorted. “If you’re the best, then you can vacuum.” 

“No can do, my immense skill and delicacy is needed dusting the living room.” 

“Ah yes, that famous delicacy which broke the antique vase your grandfather gave me,” added Lourdes. 

“Grandma! I was ten!” Lance took the dusting cloth and began to carefully stroke a glass figure of a ballerina. “When am I going to living that down?” 

She gave Keith a look and chuckled. “Clean well today and maybe you will be forgiven.” 

Lourdes and Lance fell into a distant rhythm of Spanish conversation as he started the vacuum. He knew the family was making an effort to speak in English for him, though he didn’t understand why they’d go out of their way to make sure a stranger could understand them. Yeah, he didn’t get it; it’s not like he talked that much anyway. He glanced over at them through the doorway. Lance was smiling. Lourdes was speaking to him. The light through the newly clean window was bathing Lance in light as bright as the love in her eyes as she looked at him. Keith stared for a minute, then looked back to the carpet. 

By the time they finished cleaning, it had started to rain. “No beach today.” Lance frowned. “Sorry, Keith. Maybe tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, tomorrow,” Keith agreed, but suddenly he didn’t want to see Lance in the bright light of Earth’s own sun. It was too much. Maybe the rain was better. 

 

#####  
But after the rain lasted two days, Keith grew sick of being stuck inside. He was still going on runs in the morning, so he’d jogged across the beach, watched the water going out to the bay. Lance had offered to run with him, but Keith told him no. “I need to think,” he’d say and ignore the look on Lance’s face and he never told Lance what he was thinking about. 

They spent most of the rainy days in Lance’s living room, playing video games with Veronica. Keith had lost to Lance more often than not, but he wasn’t going to admit that he’d been keeping track. 

Now, kicking his flip flops off next to the towels, he was ready to show Lance who was boss with a volleyball. Luis and Veronica had already moved slightly down beach to execute a sand castle Veronica had diagrammed, leaving Keith alone to kick Lance’s ass. 

“You are sooo going to burn,” Lance yelled from the beach towels. 

“Prove it, noodle arms,” Keith spiked the volleyball at him with a little more force than necessary. 

“Noodle arms?!” Lance dodged the ball with a squawk of outrage. “I don’t mean at volleyball, you competitive freak.” 

“I’m the competitive freak? Didn’t you think we were rivals for like a year?” 

“We were rivals. Are rivals! And I meant your skin—” Lance waved furiously at Keith’s shirtless torso. “I saw you toss that sunscreen aside! Don’t you know anything about skin care?” 

Keith hadn’t even thought about sunscreen. “It’ll be fine. With all the things in the universe trying to kill us, the sun is the least of my worries.” 

“You won’t be saying that tomorrow when you wake up boiled like a lobster. Or in sixty years wrinkled and leathery like one of those hairless cats. Or—Or—dead from skin cancer!”

“When I wake up dead from skin cancer?” 

“Exactly! Come on,” He grabbed Keith by the wrist and dragged him over to the beach blanket. With minimal fanfare, he popped open the sunscreen cap and squirted out a dollop. He tapped his lotion covered fingers against Keith’s forehead and then each cheek. “Don’t just stare at me. Rub it in!” 

Keith obliged, massaging his face in circles. It was too much lotion, he could tell; he moved his fingers down to spread the excess down his chest. Lance stared at him. Then, with a smooth grace Keith did not usually associate with Lance, he pushed him down to sit on the towel and followed to kneel next to him. He waved the cursed bottle like a weapon and squirted great gobs of sunscreen on Keith’s legs. 

“I can do this myself, you know,” he said. 

“Clearly you can’t,” he said as he began rubbing lotion into Keith’s thighs. 

“Hey! Hey, that’s a little—“ Keith squawked as Lance’s fingers methodically worked across his thigh muscles. It felt nice, a sensation he struggled to ignore. He also did not think, strictly speaking, that all that rubbing was necessary just to apply sunscreen. 

“What?” Lance blinked at him innocently and didn’t stop moving his long, thin fingers. 

“I can do my legs,” Keith mumbled, aware that his body was reacting to Lance’s touch in ways he deeply did not want Lance to notice. “Can you, uh—“ 

“—Do your back? Yeah, sure.” His hands vanished, allowing Keith a temporary reprieve as he slipped around behind him. Lance dropped the sunscreen bottle in Keith’s hands. “Do your legs. And your arms. And that whole chest-type area.” Lance paused, then added, just to make sure Keith got the point, “You are seriously pale.” 

“Yeah, yeah, thanks, Mom,” Keith said, starting to put lotion on his arms. 

“Don’t ‘mom’ me like that’s some sort of insult,” Lance said. “You’ve met my mom, she’s the best.” 

“Does she put your sunscreen on too?” 

“No,” Lance said. He pressed some lotion on to Keith’s shoulders. It felt cool; by contrast, Lance’s hands felt hot. “She taught me how to apply it myself when I was a kid so she doesn’t have to.” He punctuated it with a particular firm poke in Keith’s shoulder blade, as though it was Keith’s fault he hadn’t had parents to take him to the beach as a kid. 

“Ouch. Are bruises part of the process?” 

“Aww, does little Keith want Mommy Lance to kiss it better?” he said in baby-talk voice as he started rubbing the spot in gentle circles. 

Keith felt his stomach clench. The rubbing alone felt good; he didn’t want to think about Lance kissing his back. “No,” Keith muttered, “That’s a weird thing to say.” 

Lance laughed, bright and loud in Keith’s ear. “What can I say? I’m a weird guy.” Keith tried to ignore how close Lance sounded; he tried to ignore his hands working across his shoulders and down, pressing into his muscles. This definitely wasn’t necessary to apply sunscreen, but he couldn’t bring himself to say stop. 

When Lance’s hands reached a mid-back muscle, Keith forgot he was supposed to be putting sunscreen on his arms and bit back a moan. 

“That good?” Lance said. 

“No,” Keith said and then couldn’t resist. “Can you do that again?” 

“Hmm, a request? I could oblige.” Lance began rubbing that particular muscle again. It hurt but Keith wanted it to—it felt like something was loosening with every deep press of Lance’s fingertips. He didn’t try to hide the next moan. 

“Should I retire from Voltron to become a massage therapist?” Lance chuckled. 

“You won’t have any clients if you talk the whole time,” Keith snapped back. 

“Okay, okay,” Lance said, pressing into Keith’s other side. He continued in silence, distributing more sunscreen, rubbing, massaging all the way down to Keith’s lower back, where his swim trucks met his skin. Keith was sure he was blushing red everywhere Lance touched; he must have already looked sunburned. 

He gasped, suddenly, as Lance’s fingers slipped below Keith’s waistband. “Have to get down everywhere,” Lance said against the back of Keith’s neck, “Or you’ll burn right at the edge.” His fingers swept right along the top of Keith’s ass, but it was frustratingly clinical: he reached Keith’s hips and pulled his fingers away with only a chaste glancing touch. 

Keith was now actively willing his hard-on to vanish as Lance moved away. He quickly went back to rubbing sunscreen on his arms. Lance stood and looked down on him for a minute. Keith considered burying himself in the sand to hide. “Aren’t you going to put some on?” 

Lance looked scandalized. “I always put sunscreen on before I leave the house. Some of us care about humankind’s most important organ.” 

“Isn’t that the heart?” 

“Sure, sure, but no one ever sees your heart. We have to look at each other’s skin all day.” Lance grabbed the volleyball. “All right, finish up! Be thorough! I am not rubbing aloe vera on you tomorrow if you miss a spot,” he called as he ran to the open sand. 

“Yeah, no one asked you to,” Keith yelled back. He was grateful Lance left him alone for long enough to get ahold of himself. He tried not to think about Lance rubbing aloe on him; instead, he tried to remember that they were probably going to die defending the Earth from the remnants of the Galran Empire in less than a week. Thinking about fighting was much nicer than thinking about Lance’s hands. 

 

—————

“Lance! Your lion is beeping!” Veronica screamed across the beach. 

Lance sat up from the towel. “What? My lion? How do you know about my lion?” 

“You parked a giant lion on the beach and you didn’t think they’d notice?” Keith deadpanned. 

Lance threw sand at his leg. “Your lion’s there too! Maybe it’s the one beeping.” 

“Both lions are beeping!” Veronica yelled. 

“And blinking! Lights everywhere!” Luis opened and closed his hands quickly like flashing lights. 

Keith reached a hand down to Lance to pull him up. “Call from Pidge and Hunk?” 

“Already?” Lance frowned. 

“Maybe they’re just saying hello.” But he wasn’t optimistic. 

It was Pidge and Hunk—and also Allura and Coran and Shiro and Matt and, most disturbingly, Director Ricci of the Earth-Space Global Defense Initiative. 

“The what?” Lance said, in front of the screen in his lion. Keith stood next to the pilot seat. 

“They formed it after we took off in the Blue Lion, but it really got started after Dad came back,” Pidge explained. “It’s to defend Earth from alien threats.” 

“And reach potential alien allies,” said Director Ricci. “Which I suppose you now are, in a way.” 

“We’re not aliens,” Hunk interrupted. “We’re just the chosen pilots of the mystical weapon of an alien empire. Wait. Does that make us aliens?” 

“Keith’s an alien!” said Pidge. 

“Yep, I’m an alien.” Keith glared at the Director, as though daring her to say something about it. 

“We settled on all of you being dual Alien-Earth citizens of sorts,” she said. “If you don’t mind. Less about racial distinctions, more about personal allegiances.” 

“Ahem,” said Princess Allura. “If we could continue?” 

“Thank you, Allura.” Shiro’s face took over the view screen from the castle-ship. “I am sending each of you a rough estimate of our resources and timeline.” 

The lion view screen popped up a file alongside the video call. There was silence on the call for a moment as each of them studied it. 

“Now, as you can see—,” Shiro began. 

“Eight days?!” Lance cried. 

“That’s barely a week!” Pidge said. 

Hunk was quieter but his voice was trembling. “You’re expecting Haggar to be at Earth within the next eight days?” 

Keith didn’t say anything. Given what he knew of the Galra Empire’s movements, even depleted after the power struggle that led to Haggar’s ascension, it was what he expected. 

“Yes. I know this is quite soon, but I feel certain that our preparations will allow us to mount a strong defense in that timeframe.” Shiro didn’t sound like he was bullshitting, Keith could tell, but there was an undercurrent of desperation—he needed them to believe they would be ready and able to defend Earth. 

“What are our resources?” Keith tapped through to the weapons file. 

“As you can see, Earth has managed to develop rudimentary upper atmosphere and space drone fighters which can be used to supplement Voltron’s fighting capacity.” 

“Rudimentary?” Director Ricci interjected. “I assure you, they are state of the art.” 

“On Earth, maybe.” Keith glanced at the schematics. “They’ll be like paper airplanes for the Galra.” 

“I am pretty sure we can, cough cough, _augment_ them.” Pidge’s eyeline on screen was drifting to the side as she fell deeper into studying the Earth machines. “Hunk, do you think if we reroute this Statler piping to the starboard grating, we’d be able to—“

“—Yep, I got you. We can do it with those bionic tubing structures we picked up from Exana Prime. And then if you look at the Tarcen matrix, there’s clear redundancies which could be eliminated and replaced with additional weapons capacity.” 

Pidge squinted. “That might make them explode.” 

“Please don’t make them explode,” Shiro muttered. 

“Explosion might not be a bad idea,” Lance said. “They’re unmanned drones, right? If you can make sure they explode right under the Galra’s noses…”

Pidge grinned. “I could—“ 

“How about you don’t tell me what you’re going to do?” Director Ricci sighed. “You’re the experts on Galra fighting here, so if you have to blow up our 10-million-dollars- _each_ drones, go for it. But just send us the bill _after_ , all right?” 

“We’re also expecting support ships from several nearby allies. Keith, as we go into the preparation phase, I’d like you to coordinate with the Blade of Marmora. They have operatives on incoming ships who are being briefed on various sabotage missions.” 

“Got it,” Keith said. He glanced down and noticed Lance’s fingers were tightened on the edge of the control console, pale with tension. “When do we need to regroup?” 

“We don’t want to cut your R&R too much,” Shiro said, “but two days from now, we’d like to begin preparations.” 

They fell silent. Lance looked devastated. He was so crestfallen that, unthinking, Keith reached out to touch his shoulder. Lance raised his head quickly to look up at Keith. His eyes were wide. Keith wanted to say it was going to be okay, that they would do what was necessary and then come back, to Lance’s warm family and sunny beach and they could do nothing all day but sunbathe—but he didn’t know, of course, that it would be all right. He settled for squeezing Lance’s shoulder. 

To his surprise, Lance reached one hand up to cover Keith’s. They looked at each other for a moment that seemed to stretch all the way across the universe.

Then Hunk spoke up. “Lance, does your invitation still stand?” 

“Yeah, can we still come to the beach? Just for tomorrow?” Pidge asked. 

“Sure, yeah, of course.” Lance smiled brightly and leaned forward in excitement. Keith let his hand slip away. “It will be awesome! We can do the beach, visit town, my grandma can cook barbecue—“

“That’s settled then. You enjoy your beach day tomorrow and we’ll meet in two days,” Shiro said. “That’s all for now.” The voice call ended with cries of good night and see you soon.

Alone together in the lion, Keith looked at Lance again, now lit by the blue-green interior lighting. “It’ll be good. Some fun before the storm,” Lance said, unconvincingly. 

“Yeah,” Keith said, trying to convince himself. “Just hang out time.” 

“And all the gang together! In my house! I gotta tell Mom we’ve got incoming.” He started to climb down from the lion. “Hey, sorry our beach day got cut short. Race you back to the house?”

Finally something that didn’t make Keith feel queasy. “Yeah. Hurry up or I’ll make you eat sand.”

“I’ve got a head start,” Lance cried as he jumped out of the lion and took off across the sand. 

“No fair,” Keith yelled and took off after him. 

—————

“So Pidge and Hunk will be here tomorrow,” Lance said from his spot on the floor. They had already turned the light off for the night, but Lance had that tone, that tone that says “I want a sleepover gab session, not a peaceful night’s rest.” 

Keith sighed. He was grateful for the distraction from the thought of the mission soon to come, the inconceivable thought of defending the Earth, but he didn’t want to give Lance the satisfaction of thinking he wanted to talk instead of sleep. “So?” 

Lance sat up on the air mattress. All it took was the slightest encouragement to get him excited. “What should we do with them? Any fun ideas?” 

“We’re about to fight off an alien army trying to destroy Earth, so yeah, let’s just throw a big party.” 

“Is that sarcasm? Are you being sarcastic? We can’t all just sit around and brood all day, _some_ of us need relaxation.” 

“I’ve been relaxing! You saw me relax!” He had been trying very hard to relax and felt that effort should be acknowledged. 

“I don’t know, your muscles felt pretty tight to me.” 

“When did you feel my muscles?” Keith asked and then he remembered. 

Lance sputtered. “When I—with the—the sunscreen!” They both were quiet for a second. Were his muscles really so tight that Lance had noticed? What else had Lance noticed? He didn’t know what to say. Maybe that it was nice of Lance to be concerned? 

“You’ve just never felt muscles before,” Keith settled on responding, “on account of being all bones yourself.” 

“I have so felt muscles! I’ve felt plenty of muscles! Lots of rippling backs, more muscly than _yours_.” 

It was a baffling response. “Really? You have?” 

“No, of course not! I don’t know why I said that! You always make me say stupid things!” Lance smashed a pillow to his face and groaned. 

Keith let slip a chuckle. “I make you say stupid things? Seems like you do it on your own just fine.” 

“Well, at least you’re entertained. It’s worth it to make you laugh,” Lance said into his pillow. Keith suddenly felt very warm. He shifted under the blankets, pushing them off his chest.

“Wait, where are they going to sleep?” Lance said suddenly. 

“ _When_ are _we_ going to go sleep?” Keith muttered. 

“Maybe we can fit in the bed and they can sleep on the floor?” 

Keith shifted in the bed skeptically. “It’s pretty small.” 

“Let me see,” Lance said and Keith realized with a sinking horror that he was sitting up, climbing up, into the twin bed with Keith. By the time he thought to make room, Lance was already all around him. He tried not to breathe, but he was already inhaling the scent of Lance’s grapefruit face wash. 

“I think there’s enough room,” Lance said two inches from Keith’s face, “don’t you?” 

“I thought you were supposed to sleep on the floor,” Keith breathed out, “since you’re the host?” 

“The bed won’t fit two with Hunk in it and I’m not sharing the air mattress with him. He’s a notorious blanket thief.” He adjusted Keith’s blankets around himself. “Come on, this is fine—“ he shifted “—if we just—“ he put a hand on Keith’s shoulder “—there we go!” He tucked Keith against his chest. Keith could hear his heart beating, fast, but then he couldn’t tell if that was Lance’s racing heart or his own. 

“Comfy?” Lance said. 

“A little warm,” Keith said but he found himself leaning into it anyway: resting one hand on Lance’s hip. Lance tucked Keith’s hair behind his ear and kept his hand there. 

“I didn’t want to make things awkward earlier, when we were—with the sunscreen—“ Lance whispered, still stroking Keith’s hair, “—but I really liked touching you.” 

Keith let out a huff of breath against Lance’s collarbone. “So you decided to avoid making things awkward by crawling into bed with me?” 

Lance stilled. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll go back to the floor.” He started to pull away and, unconsciously, Keith’s fingers tightened against his side. 

“No, no—I didn’t mean—I liked touching you too,” Keith somehow managed to say. In the dark room, he thought he could see Lance’s eyebrows rise. “We could do more of that?” 

“More of like—what did you have in mind?” Lance said with a low tone. 

Keith flushed. “Er, more touching?” 

“Like… here?” Lance placed one finger on Keith’s arm. “Or here?” He poked that same finger into Keith’s ribcage. “Or—“ 

“There’s something seriously wrong with you,” Keith said, and kissed him. It was just a peck on the lips. It was dry and unsatisfying. Keith realized too late he had no idea how to angle his head, until Lance tilted his and then it seemed to _work_ , mouths slightly open, pressing, and then moving against each other until Keith couldn’t breath. 

“Mmm,” Lance said and Keith pulled back. 

“What?” 

“Nothing, that was just—“ he sighed. “—good, it was good.” He paused. “Is this going to mess up our friendship?” 

“Don’t start,” Keith mumbled, leaning in again. “Don’t overthink.” 

“Yes, sir.” Lance grinned and then Keith was lost in another kiss, in the feel of Lance against him. His hands were as warm as the sand on the beach; his mouth as hot as the sun. Just like on the beach, for a moment, Keith forgot that the Galra war was coming to Earth and that they were the first defense. Instead, he just thought of Lance, who had invited him home to show him his little corner of the world, his childhood bedroom with the stars glowing on the ceiling. 

He drifted off to sleep in Lance’s arms, too hot and too comfortable to push him back to the floor. 

—————

“Nice parking spot,” Hunk said, hoping down from Yellow. 

Pidge followed in a moment. “The view’s not bad either! Lance, you live here?” 

“This is too many lions,” Veronica chirped. “People are going to think we’re a lion cult.” 

Pidge considered. “We’re not _not_ a lion cult?” She blinked. “We might be a lion cult.” 

“Why are they lions again?” Hunk asked. 

“That’s what I want to know,” cried Veronica. “It’s suspicious!” 

“You’re not supposed to know about them anyway, Ronnie,” Lance pointed out. 

“That’s even more suspicious!” she cried, pulling at her pigtails. 

Keith leaned against the red lion. He kicked at the sand. He and Lance had awoken early and quickly, stiffly, untangled from one another. Before they’d had a chance to say anything awkward, Luis had thrown open the door to announce, “More lions! Hurry!” before dashing down the stairs. 

Lance had looked over at him and grinned. “Guess we should go meet them, huh? Wish we could get more time alone.” 

Keith just reached to grab his clothes bag and tried not to blush. “Is that your best line?” he’d said, leaving Lance sputtering. 

Now the day would be taken up with a group trip to the Ecological Reserve on the peninsula, with Hunk and Pidge. Keith was trying not to sulk about it. He wanted more time alone with Lance. 

“What bee landed in Keith’s mullet?” Pidge stage-whispered to Lance. 

“Why are you asking me?” Lance sounded so miserable that Keith looked up at him sharply. “I’m not the boss of Keith.” 

“I’m fine,” Keith said, clearing his throat. “Can we just go to this cave already?” 

“A cave?!” Hunk cried, hearts in his eyes. 

“Yeah, buddy, an awesome, beautiful cave.” Lance mimed a long stretch of cave, one arm spreading out in front of him. “There are rocks.” 

Hunk’s mouth opened. “I. Love. Rocks.” 

“There are bats.” 

Hunk’s eyes widened. “Oooo, bats too? Bats are good.” 

“And… possibly human remains?” 

All the joy and all the color drained from Hunk’s face. “Uh. No thanks.” 

“Yes, thanks!” Pidge chimed in. “Bring on the creepy dead stuff!” 

“Oh boy.” Hunk looked as queasy as ever. 

The bus to the park was a double decker with the top level open to the air, so, of course, they sat up there. Lance fidgeted the whole time in the seat next to Keith. Keith tried not to smile fondly. 

“Can’t this guy go any faster?” Lance leaned over the side as though he could shout out a suggestion to the driver below. 

Keith put a hand on Lance’s thigh to stop the constant bouncing. “Can’t you sit still? You’re worse than Luis.” 

The look on Lance’s face as he stared at Keith’s hand on his thigh was worth the potential embarrassment of being caught touching Lance. Then Lance smiled and curled his fingers around Keith’s. “Nothing makes my legs shake like you, baby.” 

Keith closed his eyes with the dreadful resignation of a man who knew he’d been caught. “You’re unbelievable.” He gave Lance’s fingers a little squeeze and then pulled away before Pidge and Hunk could see. 

The leg-bouncing started up again immediately, but Keith didn’t mind it. 

At the park, they paid the entrance fee and took their maps. No one was in sight. It was like they were exploring a planet they’d just landed on, not a well-trodden nature reserve. The trees were a deeper green than Keith had ever seen, heavy with the waters of the end of the rainy season. It was hard not to slip back into mission mode, hard to just let the park wash over him, but he breathed deep of the ocean breeze and closed his eyes until his muscles relaxed. The thought came to him: every planet they’d ever visited must have had places like this, pockets of natural wonder and history, or places that the locals visited in their time off. Even with all the paladins’ adventuring, they would never have time to see them all; they wouldn’t have time to see all of Earth’s own natural beauty, not even in a lifetime. 

The hike to the caves was longer than Lance had suggested, but they were all tougher now than they’d been the last time they were on Earth. Hunk’s complaints about wanting lunch were more perfunctory than serious. 

Damp and dripping, the first cave, Ambrosio, engulfed them in a sudden twilight. 

“Holy quiznak,” Hunk said, stopping suddenly. 

The wall of the cave was covered in drawings—animals, birds, people, in various assemblages, marching across the smooth canvas of the well-worn cave wall. 

“Did I mention the ancient cave paintings?” Lance said, beaming with pride. 

“These are amazing!” Pidge cried. “What does the guide say about them?” 

Keith studied it. “Er, they are probably about 500 years old?” 500 didn’t sound so old when you’d flown in a castle that was 10,000 years old. 

“Wow, imagine humans 500 years ago being so bored they started doodling on the walls. Relatable,” said Hunk. 

“Big mood,” added Pidge. 

“Hey, look at this one!” Lance was pointing to an animal-like blob. Keith squinted at it. Finally, he saw what it might be. 

“It’s a lion,” he said. 

“It can’t be a lion,” said Pidge. “They didn’t have lions here.” 

“It definitely looks like a lion,” said Hunk. “That is freaky.” 

“Is it weirder than there being space lion robots that turn into a giant dude?” 

Pidge shook her head. “Lion cult strikes again.” 

As they continued into the cave, Hunk and Pidge in front, Lance reached over and took Keith’s hand. He twined their fingers together. When Keith leaned closer to search Lance’s face for an explanation, Lance pretended to be studying the cave paintings. Keith let it slide, dangling their hands between them as they walked. 

Until, of course, Pidge turned around. “What are you doing?” 

“Nothing,” they both said quickly. Lance dropped Keith’s hand like it was on fire; Keith tried not to be offended. 

She shook her head. “I saw you on the bus too. So you two are like, what, all—“ she made a kissy face and said in an exaggerated falsetto, “—‘Oh, Lance!’” then a deeper rumble, “—‘Oh, Keith!” 

“That doesn’t sound like us,” Keith said. “My voice is deeper than his.” 

“Hey!” Lance squawked, going high-pitched at the end and not helping his case at all. “Anyway, yes, we’re kissy-kissy now. Right, Keith?” 

“I guess so,” Keith said but he sounded more happy to his own ears than he had in a while. Just to keep Lance on his toes, he leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “You want kissy-kissy, you get kissy-kissy,” he said with a shrug. 

Lance smiled so bright Keith thought the cave was going to burst into flames, being so close to the sun. “Oh, I’ll show you kissy-kissy.” He took Keith’s face in his hands and kissed his forehead. 

“Gross,” said Pidge. “Maybe we should let Earth be destroyed.” 

“That’s dark, Pidge,” Hunk chided. “Plus they’ll be like this on the castle too. All the time.” He shuddered. 

“Enough romance, let’s go to the cave with the dead people.” She took off and Hunk followed behind her reluctantly. 

Lance hung back, holding on to Keith’s wrist. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” he said quietly. A steady flow of water somewhere in the cave played like a soundtrack of sorts. 

Keith shook his head. “No. Of course not,” he admitted. Then he thought for a moment and added, “But I’m more ready than I was.” 

“What? Have you been training without me?” 

“No, I mean. Being back here, seeing this, meeting your family—“ kissing you, he did not say, “—I think maybe….” He didn’t know how to put it in words. 

“You feel like it’s your home too,” Lance said with a faint smile. 

“Yeah,” he said and found that it was the truth. 

Lance reached over and pulled Keith into a hug. Keith closed his eyes against Lance’s shoulder. “Hey, no matter what happens with Haggar, you know—you’ll always have a home with us.” 

Keith raised his arms to wrap around Lance’s waist. “Yeah, I know. You too. Whatever happens.” 

“Whatever happens.” The fear was still in his voice—fear for all the people at home, fear for his comrades in arms, fear for everyone on Earth he’d never met—but now, with new resolve. Maybe that fear could be a source of strength as well. 

In the cool darkness of the cave, with his eyes closed in Lance’s arms, Keith could feel the light of the galaxy’s one hundred billion stars above them. A home amongst the stars, with Earth’s own sun not the least of them.


End file.
